I know there are some rules when posting tournament reports. Only high quality and interesting place reports should be posted. But I decided to write one anyway. If it isn't up to standards, you can delete at will.
I decided to play T1 for a Timetwister whilst my friend Bob the builder wanted to play the Kamiwhatever prerelease. So I'm off to Eindhoven on my own. I bribe Morefling the judge with some cds and chat with some Belgians whom also made the trip. Our goal was to get one of us in T8.
The night before the tournament, I was trying to decide what to play. It would be either Titan Slaver, or Control "fear the dart" Slaver. It is somewhat slower, but has more resilience. And I expected a field where Blood Moon would be superb (non basics and crucible hate). In the end, I made a metagame decision and played this:
1 Platinum Angel
1 Pentavus
4 Goblin Welder
1 Gorilla Shaman
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Blood Moon
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Cunning Wish
2 Mindslaver
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Darksteel Citadel
2 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
4 Island
Sideboard:
2 Lava Dart
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Blood Moon
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Sphere of Resistence
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Duplicant
Due to Gencon and Waterbury, I expected a lot of slaver. So I've cut a basic Island to fit in Gorilla Shaman. Testing showed the land count should be fine (with Blood Moon helping against Wasteland / Strip).
Round 1: Daniel Eufinger playing UG Madness
This is a matchup I haven't really tested. So I'm a little uncertain of how things will turn out. On top of that, Daniel get's his wooden playmat out. I have no doubt you can kill or at least severely injure a person with it, so I think I'll play a little cautious...
Game 1: I lose the roll. He drops a forest and passes the turn. I play a turn one Welder. He forces, I force back. He attacks with a mongrel and Aquamoeba. I get a Pentavus. In my next turn, I create a token, weld in my crypt and tinker an angel. He brainstorms, then brainstorms a second time. He attacks with mongrel, Arrogant Wurm and Aquamoeba. I don't block anything and he scoops. Apparently he has no removal in the next turns and he was hoping I'd block something with my angel.
Me: 20-19-16-12
Him: 20-19-18-17-14-13
Game 2: He drops a land, and I play the first turn welder again. He puts a blue creature enchantment called Stupefying Touch on it. I cast welder #2 and he casts his second Stupefying Touch. So my goblins do what they usually do best and attack into certain death (though he doesn't block). His mongrel attacks and I decide to chump block with a welder. End of turn, he discards an Arrogant Wurm which I decide to Drain. He acts surprised but a creature less and 5 mana in the pool next main phase is a nice tempo boost. And I hate creatures without special abilities like switching artifacts, creating tokens or destroying lands. Wizards should ban regular creatures. So, next turn, I can hardcast my angel. The turn after that, I cast Duplicant imprinting something stupid. He plays a wurm, and some welder tricks remove it and give me a 4/4. He scoops when I attack.
Me: 20-19-18-17-16-14-12-10-8-4-0
Him: 20-19-18-17-16-15-14-10-2-0
1-0-0
He didn’t smack me in the head with his playmat, so I consider myself lucky.
At this point, there is a power outage. So no computer and no dci reporter. Power is back after some time, and Morefling works as fast as he can to enter all results. So, with some delay, we have...
Round 2: Rick Maas playing Landstill
I think I played against Rick in another Eindhoven tournament. He was playing unpowered keeper Morphling style. Today, he is playing a better deck. Details could be wrong here, because I don't have much notes.
Game 1: I lose the roll a second time. He drops a conclave, I drop a land. I play something which he forces and I force back (I can't remember what. No notes on that, sorry. It was probably a turn 1 welder again). He drops a second conclave, and I play Blood Moon. We draw go for a while and he plays standstill. Which is fine cause his lands can't attack anyway and I can discard an artifact and weld it back in. I decide to break the standstill anyway (confidence my friends) and drop a Pentavus (I guess due to the decrease of his life). I attack a few turns and he drops a disc clearing the board. I play the second Blood Moon and finish him of anyway.
Me: 20-19-18-17-16-15-13-12-11
Him: 20-19-18-13-9-5
Game 2: Very similar to game 1. We force some things. I drop Blood Moon again making his man lands manmountains. Again a standstill hits the board and I break it for something. Draw go a few turns. He plays Tormod's Crypt, I counter. He plays a second one and breaks it immediately. Few turns later, he tries to chain of vapor my Blood Moon, and I counter. But he drops disc in his turn and clears the board. Then attacks for 6. I'm at 6 life and topdeck Yawgmoth's Will (while time is called). I play Ruby, Jet and Will. I have Pentavus in hand, Tinker in graveyard but no brainstorm to put the Pentavus on my library so I can't Tinker. I also have a slaver possibility, but no activation (mana short). I'm also one mana short to cast the Angel in my graveyard. I cast my Welder from the graveyard then Demonic Tutor and try to find Time Walk so that I can weld in my angel in my Time Walk turn, but the Time Walk isn't there anymore. It was removed with his crypt. This is my only play mistake of the day (that I know of). And a big one, cause I could have cast Blood Moon which would result in us not finishing the game. But the Welder used the only possible red mana I had. Important lesson learned: take more time to think and check cards removed from game before making a play with Will.
Me: 20-19-18-17-13-12-6-0
Him: 20-19-18-17-13-9-5-3
1-0-1
Round 3: Jesse Cornelissen playing TPS.
Game 1: Again, I lose the roll. Sigh. I keep a hand without land but with lotus, 2 moxen and force possibility. He plays Swamp, Duress and takes my Lotus over my Force. I'm afraid I'm playing against Black Sui. I hate Black Sui. Hates it I say. You know, a deck with a high amount of creatures. Creatures without special abilities. Ban them I say. I topdeck a Volcanic (excellent). Play it with the moxen. He plays another swamp and plays a second Duress, taking my Thirst for Knowledge. I drop another mana source. He does nothing and passes. At his end step, I play Fact or Fiction. He splits in 4 lands against Blood Moon. Looking at his 2 swamps, I take the 4 lands so I can hardcast Force (but I'm rather confused as I'm still thinking he is playing Sui and will have only basics). I have a welder and get Pentavus into play. I also slave him. His hand reveals the deck is is playing. 6 Blue spells, including Mind's Desire and Time Spiral and a Tendrils. I can't do anything and I wonder why he started with a hand like this... In my turn, I tutor a second welder. He knows that 2 welders, Pentavus and slaver is game.
Me: 20-19-18-17
Him: 20-19-16-15-10
Game 2: He keeps his hand of 7 with confidence, so I mull into a hand of 6 with a Force in it. He starts with fetch, underground, ritual, ritual, Memory Jar and I force. I play volcanic, Shaman. He drops a land. I drop a land, attack with shaman and play a welder. Again, he plays a fetch and looks for Underground Sea. In my turn I play Blood Moon. I keep attacking with my creatures and cast a 2nd welder. I cast a Sphere somewhere which he forces. He is at 3 and it is now or never. So he plays Tolarian Mountain and a Sapphire. Cast's a brainstorm with his sapphire, ritual with his swamp, then tries to cast a Mind's Desire using his Mountain Academy and 2 Underground Mountains. I ask him where he gets the blue mana to do that, pointing to my Blood Moon. He scoops.
Me: 20-19-18-17
Him: 20-19-18-17-15-14-12-11-9-7-5-3
2-0-1
Round 4: Menno Dolstra (name?) playing Control Slaver
Menno is playing the same deck as I am. Even the lava darts are there. I saw him playing against Marco in round 3. Menno is at 4 and Marco played tendrils with a storm of 2. Menno drained one and forced the other. In his turn he attacked with his pentavites, forgetting the 4 drain mana, burning to death. He could have put all the mana in his Pentavus but forgot.
Game 1: I win the roll. I Fetch a volcanic and play a welder. He drops a LOA. Sigh. We draw go and eventually he gets an active slaver in a counter war. I have the nerve to use my own welder to get his slaver back and do some more stupid things. It seems I will be doing stupid things for a while and I scoop. His active loa just shreds me apart. He must have drawn 10 cards from it.
Me: 20-19-17
Him: 20-19-18-17-16-15-14-13
Game 2: This game is just plain stupid. I don't do anything flashy, and he starts with ..... LOA. Darnit. We draw go some time giving me land and he gets nice draw spells. Together with his active LOA, this nets him a great amount of cards. I demonic, tinker for Pentavus. I could go for slaver, but I couldn't activate it right away. And I feared he had his own in hand. Stupid new legend rule. I wanted a permanent and the Pentavus seemed like a good choice. I'm not sure. In his turn, he Demonics, Ancestrals, Walks, and cast welder. In his walk turn, he cast's the slaver and activates it (so if I did get my own slaver instead of Pentavus, he could cast his own destroying both, weld his own back and slave me. Of course, it is possible he didn't know the new legend rule). He creates 4 pentavite tokens on my side. I have nothing else to do. He keeps returning his slaver and activates it turn after turn while he is at low life and crypt in play! I am constantly asking myself "why is he welding out his moxen instead of his crypt". He had mana enough so that couldn't be it. Meanwhile, he is constantly rolling odd instead of even taking no damage. He gets a second welder and tells me I'm in a lock and should give up. I'm like WTF (not worse than fish)? I have the Pentavus with pentavite tokens. He has 2 welders and the slaver (and the crypt). I explain he needs to have the Pentavus before he goes infinite. He tells me this is his first T1 tournament and he read the combo somewhere. But he understands that I'm not in a lock. So, he casts Fact or Fiction on my end step revealing his own Pentavus, and welders it in for his crypt (finally).
Me: 20-19-18
Him: 20-19-16-15-13-8-…
2-1-1
I was frustrated after this game. After all, it felt that playing skill did not determine the outcome of this match. I'm not saying he is a bad player. He is probably good in other formats but somewhat clueless in T1. He did manage to T8, so he can't be bad. But this is T1. These things tend to happen sometimes. I could still get into T8 so I decided to stop being frustrated and concentrate on the last 2 games.
Round 5: Martij van den Berg playing Fish
Game 1: I win the roll. I fetch volcanic and play welder. He plays island, flying men. We beat each other for some time until I get a Pentavus. I'm making tokens and block his creatures, but he is able to cast new creatures every turn. Because he is attacking, I'm able to attack back winning the race. He is at 3 and attacks with Rootwater Thief. I create 3 pentavites EOT and attack with the 3 flying creatures. I was at 3 land whole game.
Me: 20-19-18-17-16-15-13-11-10-9-8-6-4
Him: 20-19-15-11-7-3-0
He is eating French Fries when we are playing and I'm getting nauseous because of the smell. Belgian French Fries pawns Dutch French Fries big time. At least he was careful when shuffling my deck and didn't get French Fries grease all over it.
Game 2: He starts with Island - Aether vial. I get a volcanic - welder. Second turn, he puts a counter on the vial, and casts a second one. He used the vial to get his creatures into play whilst he is stuck at one land. I'm lucky to get Duplicant and imprint 2 lavamancers and a flying men with welder tricks. He has a bouncer and he bounces my Duplicant. I'm light on mana but I have 2 welders at this time. So I tap Sapphire, Sol Ring. Weld out Sol ring for Ruby. Tap Ruby and weld it back out for sol ring. Then I cast the Duplicant and he bounces his bouncer. Time is almost called. There is no way out for him and he scoops.
Me: 20-19
Him: 20-19-18-17-16-14
3-1-1
Round 6: Tim?? Playing Stax
Whoever wins this should make T8.
Game 1: I lose the roll. He starts with Workshop. I go Volcanic, Sapphire, Time Walk. In my walk turn, I play an Island and Tinker for Pentavus. In his turn, he casts sol ring of his workshop, and taps it for Smokestack. He burns for 1. In my turn, I cast welder and attack with Pentavus. He doesn’t put a soot counter on smokestack in his upkeep, but casts a second one. EOT, I create 2 pentavite tokens. I attack for 5 and pass the turn. Again no counters on Smokestack cause I have way more permanents. EOT, I create 3 more pentavites, killing Pentavus and weld it back in. He scoops.
Me: 20
Him: 20-19 (burn)-14-9
Game 2: This game starts the same as game 1. But he get's a Triskelion before I tinker Pentavus. We attack each other until he get's a welder.
Me: 20-16-12-8
Him: 20-18 (burn)-13-12-7-6
Game 3: I have a hand with turn 2 Mana Drain and turn 3 rack and ruin. I play a volcanic and welder. He plays a workshop, casts a crypt and a chalice with 2 counters on it. There goes the drain. I play an Underground Sea. He plays a land and casts Tangle Wire. I tap my perms and play an Island, thinking to Rack and Ruin in my next upkeep. He Tinkers for Sundering Titan destroying my land. I weld the Titan out for his crypt destroying his volcanic. I play draw go discard while he is casting nice things and taking damage from his crypt half of the time. I get a Darksteel Citadel (finally a land). He gets his own welder. He is taking damage from his crypt from time to time so he thinks to welder it out for something is his graveyard. I ask him what he is targeting, so I can weld the same artifact from his graveyard for something else on his board. Big dilemma. Meanwhile the crypt stays on the board. He gets Trinisphere and Crucible and about a dozen other permanents while I'm stuck at 2. I can only hope his crypt will kill him. At 6 life, he gets a smokestack. Next upkeep: 1 counter on it while he doesn't take damage from crypt. I sack the citadel and hope to draw land but I don't, leaving with my welder as my only permanent to his 2135. He takes damage from his crypt a last time and sacks it to Smokestack. There is no way out.
Me: 20-19
Him: 20-19-18-15-12-9-6-3
3-2-1
14th place.
Overall thoughts on the deck: I think the deck is great in the current metagame. The only thing I would change is a Triskelion in the board instead of one blue blast or even main instead of the angel. I missed it sometimes (in the mirror, against fish and standstill and against the Trinistax with red). Duplicant has been superb. Also, the Sphere of resistance is great in a storm heavy meta. I played it 2 months ago in the Titan deck. Removed it the month after that and had to play against 2 storm decks. This time, the Sphere was back and was very usefull.
Props:
- Eindhoven for such a nice high powered tournament. Even the non powered decks where good decks and not some silly reanimate/akroma stuff.
- All the people at Eindhoven for the chats and laughs.
Slops:
- The sun making it very difficult to drive back home. After a wrong turn, I drove through a bus only lane, and almost did the same thing a second time further down the road. Sorry for the Belgians that followed
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